Benoît Fournier (b. 1981, Carpentras, France) is a French artist living and working in Rio de Janeiro. He studied at the Parque Lage School of Visual Arts (EAV), Rio de Janeiro.
His work engages with soil as a living, active environment rather than a resource. He approaches it as a metabolic system, where biological processes shape forms over time.
Working through walking, collecting and in-situ observation, he uses earth, clay, organic matter and compost drawn from the environments he inhabits, particularly within agroforestry contexts in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. In some works, living organisms such as earthworms directly participate in the formation of the pieces.
Rather than representing landscapes, his work extends their dynamics into matter. Forms emerge from processes of digestion, decomposition and circulation, where growth and erosion coexist.
His installations and sculptures reveal what usually remains hidden beneath the surface.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS (selection)
2024 — Espace Krajcberg – Centre d’art contemporain et nature, Regarder l’invisible, Paris
2023 — Art Now Projects, Osmose, Geneva
2021 — Centro Cultural Z42, Tudo no mundo é gente, Rio de Janeiro
2019 — Espace L, Nipêi Yuxiî, Geneva
2017 — Blue Sky Gallery, Babylon, Portland
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selection)
2025 — Art Now Projects, Osmose, Geneva, Switzerland
2024 — Instituto Inclusartiz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2023 — Galeria Matias Brotas, Vitória, Brazil
2022 — Hélio Oiticica Municipal Art Center, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2022 — Photo Basel, with Galerie L’Antichambre, Basel, Switzerland
2021–2024 — Este Arte, Reginart Collection, Punta del Este, Uruguay
2020 — Art Genève, with Simon Studer Art and Rosa Turetsky Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
2019 — Biennale d’Issy, Paris, France
2017 — A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2017 — Museu Histórico Nacional (MHN), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2016 — Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
RESIDENCIES
2024 — Instituto Inclusartiz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2022 — Kaaysá – Art & Nature, São Paulo, Brazil
2021 — Centro Cultural Z42, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
COLLECTION (selection)
Museum MAR, Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Mangroves Arts Foundation, Barcelona, Spain
Joaquim Paiva Collection, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (MAM–RJ), Brazil
Geoffrey C. Koslov, Private Collection, Houston, USA
National History Museum, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Zarabatana Collection, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
BOOKS
2015 | Water memories, published by Andrea Jakobsson, Brazil
2014 | The city by Bandeira, published by Batel
EDUCATION
2017–2022 — Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage (EAV), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil